It is nice to see people pay homage to Pope John Paul II. While I did not like the way he handled the recent crisis regarding what the mainstream meida labeled "pedophile priests" (which was really not pedophelia at all in 99.9% of cases. What really happened was homosexuals within the priesthood were preying on adolescent males). He was a magnificent and strong leader. He refused to bend church doctrine to accomadate every fad lifestyle and belief. Furthermore he was a staunch anti-communist and wasn't intimidated by these socialists and useful idiots. Hopefully the church will elect a new pope who is

forewarning:
you are going to be dragged by your feet to the slaughterhouse for your claim that paedophilia is just homosexuals preying on youth. i believe adolescents are for all intents and purposes still 'youth', you might need to make note of this. your second crime is the ascertation that homosexuality (unless you were leading to something else, apologies if so) is a 'fad lifestyle'.

No, as a practicing Catholic who was scandalized and outraged at the pedophilia scandal I don't think it's got anything to do with homosexuality. These guys who practiced this stuff had heavy duty problems that I'm not familiar with, and they were very much in the minority of priests. I continued to respect priests as a whole, I didn't think a few bad apples who made a bunch of noise should screw up the reputation of the entire priesthood. I'm glad the media reported the particulars of the scandal because they shouldn't have gotten away with this behavior. The thing about Pope John Paul and his conservativism was that a pope has to be steadfast, even if some of the views he holds aren't popular. The papacy is not a popularity contest. I happen to support birth control and don't oppose homosexual unions. Sometimes I think perhaps I should have become Eastern Orthodox, they are a little more liberal, but then the doctrine of apostolic succession......oops, that's another can of worms, but it's what made me pick.

Originally posted by WB04 It is nice to see people pay homage to Pope John Paul II. While I did not like the way he handled the recent crisis regarding what the mainstream meida labeled "pedophile priests" (which was really not pedophelia at all in 99.9% of cases. What really happened was homosexuals within the priesthood were preying on adolescent males). He was a magnificent and strong leader. He refused to bend church doctrine to accomadate every fad lifestyle and belief. Furthermore he was a staunch anti-communist and wasn't intimidated by these socialists and useful idiots. Hopefully the church will elect a new pope who is